There are several blogs on this topic; however, some seem to be lacking one or more details or may not show how to patch and customize Adobe Acrobat Reader XI. In this blog, I will show you how to patch, customize and deploy, via SCCM, Adobe Reader XI (11.0.03).Pre-requisite: Make sure you have installed Adobe Customization Wizard XI

Next, from an administrator command line, we’re going to extract the MSI from the EXE file using the following command: AdbeRdr11003_en_US.exe -nos_o”c:\SomeDirectory” -nos_ne

Do not close this command line window as we’ll use it again.

For this example I’m extracting the contents to C:\temp\Adobe XI (11.0.03) folder.

Once we’ve extracted the source files from the EXE file, then let’s run (as an administrator) the Adobe Customization Wizard XI to create the MST file that we’re going to use to customize Adobe Reader XI.

If the customization wizard isn’t run as an administrator, you won’t be able to save the package.

Basically, we’re going to make changes in the the following sections:

Personalization Options

Installation Options

Shortcuts

WebMail Profiles

Online and Adobe online services Features

Once the customization options have been completed, proceed to click on Transform menu option then click on Generate Transform…

Save the MST file in the same folder where the Adobe Reader MSI exists.

For this example, we’re going to save this file as AcroRead.mst

Next, click on File and then click on Save Package.

Back to the command line and let’s create an Application Installation Point (AIP) in order to patch Acrobat Reader.

In the folder where the MSI file was extracted, you’ll notice that file AdbeRdrUpd11003.msp is located there – that’s our patch file that we’ll be applying.

For this example we’re going to create a new folder – C:\AdobeAIP

From the command line, in step 3, we’re going to create the AIP with the following command: msiexec /a AcroRead.msi

Once the wizard comes up, make sure to point it to the folder created in step 8.2

At this time, folder C:\AdobeAIP should contain a patched Acrobat Reader XI as well as the customization file. We’re going to use the contents of folder C:\AdobeAIP as our deployment files to create our SCCM 2012 deployment package.

Copy all contents of C:\AdobeAIP to the share that SCCM uses to deploy applications in your environment.

Let’s create a new application deployment package in SCCM. First, go to the Software Library section, and click on Application Management and then click on the Applications container to create the new package.

Right click on the Applications container then click on Create Application option.

Point to the network share where you copied the files in Step 15 and select the file AcroRead.msi

You may get a warning message about not being able to verify the publisher of this MSI file, just click on Yes.

In the General Information wizard screen, in the Installation program field, add the following:TRANSFORMS=”AcroRead.mst”

This line should read: msiexec /i “AcroRead.msi” TRANSFORMS=”AcroRead.mst” /q

Continue accepting defaults until the application wizard finishes.

Now, you can deploy this new application to a selected number of computers or users.

Supersedence Notes

In my environment, I’m replacing, or superseding, and older version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. Here’s a quick screenshot on how it’s done.